Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) plans to sell its fixed-line broadband subsidiary optic fiber unit and data center business to pay down its debts.
The company aims to raise about INR 74,000 crore (USD 1 billion) through the sale to meet liabilities including INR 22,500 crore (USD 308 million) in the line of debt repayment, spectrum dues, and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments.
The company said it had a gross debt (excluding lease liabilities) worth INR 1,803.1 billion (~USD 2.4 billion).
TotalTelecoms reports that the company expects “between USD 800 million and USD 1 billion” out of the sale, but investors are not interested in these prices. The proposed sale(s) can happen on a sale and leaseback model.
Vodafone Idea Limited CFO Akshaya Moondra said the company is also planning to raise INR 3,000 crore (USD 403 million) in cash this financial year from tax refunds and the sale of land banks, which were bought for future data centers.
Vi came into existence in 2018 after Vodafone India did a merger with Idea Cellular.
Vodafone currently has a stake of 45.1 % in the combined entity and Aditya Birla Group 26%. It is consistently struggling to get a sneak of fresh investments despite the recent struggles.
In Navi Mumbai, Vodafone Idea has one data center and around 1,60,000 km of fiber optics. The company has made efforts to sell the data center unit in 2019 but couldn’t get buyers willing to match their expectations.
Several Asian telcos are undergoing a reshuffle in the near places of their data center units. Singaporean telco Singtel in May announced a company reorganization which includes selling off significant infrastructures such as subsea cables, satellites, towers, and data centers.
